1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the reduction of friction between a magnetic recording layer and a magnetic head. More particularly, the present invention relates to a ferromagnetic magnetic recording member including a lubricating layer containing a liquid or semi-solid lubricant on one side of the recording member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, a magnetic recording member produced by dispersing a powdery magnetic material such as .gamma.-Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3, Co containing .gamma.-Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3, CrO.sub.2, or an alloy powder in an organic binder and coating the resulting composition on a support has been used. Recently, however, a magnetic recording member produced without using any binder by electroplating, electroless plating, sputtering, vacuum deposition, ion plating, or the like, i.e., of the so-called non-binder type, has attracted public attention.
As one of the requirements for a magnetic recording member for use in high density recording, it has been theoretically and experimentally proposed to obtain higher coercive force by rendering the thickness of the magnetic recording layer thinner. Thus, great hopes have been placed on non-binder type magnetic recording members and efforts have been directed toward the practical use of such a magnetic recording member because with the non-binder type magnetic recording member, the thickness can be easily decreased by a factor of 10 as compared with a coating type magnetic member and a non-binder type magnetic recording member has higher saturation magnetization.
However, serious problems are raised with a non-binder type thin film magnetic recording member with respect to corrosion, impact-strength, and frection-strength. Namely, a magnetic recording member and a magnetic head are moved relative to each other in the course of recording a magnetic signal, and reproduction and erasure, and thus there is a fair possibility for the magnetic recording member to be subjected to friction and breakage due to the contact of the magnetic recording member with the magnetic head.
Prior art magnetic recording members produced by techniques such as plating, vapor-depositing, ion plating, and the like tend to be damaged when contacted with the magnetic head and the magnetic recording layer is scraped off because the recording member does not contain any binder. A method of coating a polymer film having a thickness on the order of 2 .mu.m has been proposed, but it has been found that this method is not desirable since the output is decreased in high speed recording.